The no-contest plea by Daniel J. Varnes closes off a trial but not the questions left by Johnson’s violent death in a Saginaw Township motel room.
SAGINAW TOWNSHIP, Mich. — For the family of Teressa M. Johnson, the no-contest plea entered by Daniel J. Varnes this month did not reopen the facts of her death. It marked the point when a case built from autopsy findings, witness testimony and motel-room evidence moved toward sentencing without a trial.
The development matters now because it changes what comes next for everyone tied to the case. Johnson, 46, was found dead Sept. 1, 2024, inside a room at the Rodeway Inn and Suites on St. Mary’s Lane. Prosecutors later said she died after repeated abuse in the room. On March 3, 2026, Varnes, 47, pleaded no contest to second-degree murder, torture and concealing a death. Public reporting said sentencing was set for April 13 and that prosecutors had reached a deal calling for a 32-year prison term.
Long before the plea, Johnson’s relatives were speaking publicly about loss rather than procedure. Her brother, Jeremy Johnson, told Mid-Michigan NOW in September 2024 that an officer came to his home and said his sister had been “brutally murdered.” He described her as outgoing and said she had been born in Flint and raised in Burton. In the station’s interview, grief arrived in fragments: breaks in speech, anger at what he said had been done to her and regret that he had not been able to intervene. Those details sat alongside the more formal family record in Johnson’s obituary, which listed her full name as Teressa Marie Johnson, said she died Sept. 1, 2024, and noted a memorial service later that month in Burton. In many homicide cases, the first public outline of a victim comes from charging papers. Here, family members and memorial notices filled in a fuller picture while the court process was still in its early stages.
What prosecutors later said happened to Johnson was brutal and prolonged. According to public accounts of the investigation, she had spent one to two weeks at the motel with Varnes before she died. The case surfaced after a man came to the room to collect money from Varnes and saw the shape of a body under the blanket. Reporting on later testimony said Varnes told the man, “You know exactly what that is,” when asked what was on the bed. The witness then called 911. Police found Johnson dead, and Varnes fled on foot into nearby woods before authorities captured him later that day. During interviews with detectives, prosecutors said, Varnes admitted to acts of brutality, including repeated beatings. One detective testified that Varnes said he had “beat the s— out of her” and struck her at least 10 times. WJRT later reported that prosecutors also described pliers being used on Johnson’s mouth and blows delivered with fists, boots and objects.
The physical evidence lined up with that account in grim detail. Investigators recovered scissors, a ratchet, side cutters, screwdrivers and pliers from the room, and public reports said each tested positive for Johnson’s blood. An autopsy concluded that she died from multiple traumatic injuries, recent and remote, with related complications. That finding became an important point in the public understanding of the case because it suggested injuries from more than one moment. A neighboring guest who had been staying beside Varnes for more than two months told WJRT she had no idea such violence had been happening nearby. Her statement underscored the closed-off nature of the room where Johnson died: a space ordinary enough to go unnoticed from next door, yet central to allegations of torture and concealment. The motel’s routine setting made the case harder, not easier, to process for people who followed it locally.
By the time the case reached March 2026, the court’s role had narrowed. A no-contest plea meant no jury would hear the witness who called 911, no full presentation of the forensic evidence and no long public retelling of Johnson’s last days. Prosecuting Attorney John McColgan told Oxygen.com that it was fortunate Varnes pleaded rather than put all involved through a trial. That practical outcome can spare witnesses and relatives from testifying, but it also means many details remain known only through hearings and news coverage rather than a complete trial record. What is public is enough to establish the shape of the case: Johnson was found dead in a Saginaw Township motel room, Varnes was accused of prolonged abuse, and the charges were resolved through a plea that left sentencing as the final major court event still ahead.
A judge was expected to decide whether to formally impose the 32-year term described in public reports at an April 13 sentencing hearing.
Author note: Last updated April 1, 2026.